Florida Found Itself At The Weather's Mercy

December 29, 1985|By Charlie Jean of The Sentinel Staff

It was a year when Mother Nature threw one fit after another. For nearly a week, Aug. 28-Sept. 2, Hurricane Elena looped back and forth in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, keeping residents and tourists boarding up and heading out. Elena forced more than 1.25 million people to flee in two evacuations, the largest exodus in U.S. history. The fickle storm produced near-hurricane or hurricane conditions from west Florida to Mississippi before finally coming ashore in Mississippi.

Then came Kate, the first November hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland in 50 years. Kate developed north of Puerto Rico, slashed Cuba, brushed the Florida Keys and headed directly for the Florida Panhandle, where it crossed between Apalachicola and Panama City, putting about 80,000 people in flight.

And then there were the brush fires, the worst in Florida history. They began May 16, fueled by high winds, and raged until welcome rains brought them under control five days later. The toll: more than 240 square miles of charred woodlands, about 550 houses destroyed or damaged, 7,000 people evacuated, two firefighters killed and an undetermined amount of wildlife lost. But perhaps nature's most devastating, long-term blow to the state was a three-day January freeze that wiped out 20 percent of the state's citrus crop, two- thirds of its vegetable crop, a third of its grazing land and threw thousands of field hands out of work. Discouraged Central Florida citrus growers, reeling from the second midwinter killer freeze in a row, contemplated moving south or switching crops.

Although Mother Nature dominated the news, she did not monopolize it. State officials turned down a plea for clemency by Roswell Gilbert, 74, a retired engineer serving a minimum 25 years in prison for killing his ailing wife in their Fort Lauderdale condominium in 1984. Gov. Bob Graham favored freeing Gilbert until all appeals are exhausted but was overruled by other members of the Cabinet. On Oct. 23 Gilbert asked for a new trial.

Appeal judge and former nun Rosemary Barkett was sworn in Nov. 15 as Florida's first Supreme Court justice since the court was created 140 years ago.

Outspoken Jacksonville legal secretary Rosemary Furman was all smiles over the events of 1985. The Florida Bar prosecuted her for practicing law without a license. She had sold legal forms for simple things such as divorces and name changes, and had helped customers fill them out. She was convicted and sentenced to 30 days in jail, which Gov. Bob Graham and the Cabinet promptly commuted.

On June 4 the Bar said it wanted to rehabilitate its image by giving up its power to prosecute people for practicing law without a license and give that authority to local state attorneys.

A federal jury in Tallahassee on Oct. 25 acquitted former House Speaker and Senate President Mallory Horne, once one of Florida's most powerful politicians, of helping a drug dealer hide his assets from the Internal Revenue Service. But the jury convicted his nephew, Melvin, of the charge.

Matthew Goldsby and James Simmons, 21-year-old devout Christians, were convicted April 24 of the Christmas Day 1984 bombings of three Pensacola clinics where abortions were performed. They were sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.

An uproar ensued over the disclosure that Dr. William Hamilton, Alachua County's medical examiner, was removing brain tissue from executed inmates and giving the samples to a University of Florida researcher trying to determine if there is a connection between blows to the head and criminal behavior. Hamilton said he would continue to take brain samples as part of his autopsies on all executed inmates but said he had stopped providing samples to the university researcher.

On the political front, the Legislature passed a comprehensive state plan May 23 that Gov. Bob Graham called a ''historic achievement'' that ''represents a bold and determined step to protect and enhance the quality of life in Florida.'' The growth management plan covers nearly every aspect of life from education to the environment.

Attorney General Jim Smith and Insurance Commissioner Bill Gunter unexpectedly dropped out of the governor's race, both citing family considerations. Gunter, considered the front-runner, stunned political activists around the state. Smith later teamed as Senate President Harry Johnston's running mate but they split in a squabble, leaving Smith's political career a shambles.

In the adventure department, the space shuttle program had its busiest year yet with nine launches from Cape Canaveral. But NASA did no jig. Ten missions seemed in the bag until Columbia's launch Dec. 19 was aborted by hydraulic problems just 14 seconds before liftoff. It was postponed until Jan. 6.

Key West treasure hunter Mel Fisher reached the end of a 16-year rainbow July 19 when a trail of undersea gold finally led his divers to the wreckage of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Atocha and its estimated $400 million in treasure.

The year saw an apparent tragedy for one Orlando youngster and hope for another who narrowly escaped death in 1984. Regina Mae Armstrong, 6, was kidnapped June 17 while playing near her southeast Orlando home. A nationwide search so far has been fruitless. Paul Jewell, 11, who was severely burned and lost part of a leg when he was inflating a bike tire at a booby-trapped air pump in Lockhart in 1984, continued his rehabilitation. He was flown to the Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children in Greenville, S.C., Nov. 26 to be fitted with an artificial leg, but he was forced to return home without it because of chicken pox at the hospital. He was scheduled to return to Greenville Thursday.